DHA in Breast Milk May Be Brain Booster for Kids

by John Gever John Gever,Senior Editor, MedPage Today
December 10, 2010

Action Points

Point out that this study suggests that maternal DHA supplements during early breast feeding may have measurable long-term benefits in the exposed children.

Five-year-olds whose mothers took algal docosahexanoic acid (DHA) supplements during lactation in a randomized trial performed better on an attention test, but not on a variety of other neuropsychological evaluations, researchers said.

Scores on sustained attention domain of the Leiter International Performance Scale were significantly higher -- 46.5 versus 41.9 (P=0.008) -- in children whose mothers received the supplements, reported Craig L. Jensen, MD, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and colleagues.

However, the study found no differences in performance on other tests, including measures of visual acuity, hand-eye coordination, and verbal skills, they wrote in the December issue of the Journal of Pediatrics.

But despite the mixed findings, two Canadian researchers said in an accompanying editorial that DHA supplements are warranted during infancy.

Michael Thomas Clandinin, PhD, of the University of Alberta, and Bodil Maria Larsen, PhD, RD, of the Alberta Health Service (both in Edmonton), suggested that the most important questions now are "how much and in what foods to augment the DHA intake of a specific infant."

"It is now clear that we must accept a new paradigm in infant nutrition -- that adequate intake of essential long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid enhances aspects of infant visual development and related complex brain functions," they declared.

In the study, 119 pregnant women planning to breast feed were randomized to receive a commercial DHA-containing algal extract or a vegetable-oil placebo capsule. The algal product contained about 200 mg of DHA as well as a mix of saturated and monunsaturated fatty acids and linolenic acid.

Participants took the capsules daily for four months beginning five days after delivery.

Their offspring were evaluated at age 5 with four tests of visual acuity and six instruments for assessing neuropsychological function. The latter included tests of hand movement, leg coordination, visual-motor integration, components of the Wechsler intelligence scale for young children, and the Leiter attention test.

Nor were there any significant differences in the measures of visual acuity, although on one test -- the sweep visual evoked potential amplitude -- there was a trend toward a lower mean score (39.6 versus 45.3 microvolts, P=0.06) among children exposed to the DHA supplements, reflecting diminished function.

Conventional letter-recognition assessments of visual acuity showed no differences in either eye between groups.

Jensen and colleagues also acknowledged that the single measure showing a significant advantage for the DHA-exposed children, in sustained attention, was of uncertain clinical relevance, "particularly because scores for both groups were within the normal range for age."

Still, they added, "this finding underscores the importance of longer-term follow-up studies of early DHA supplementation."

The editorialists, who have advocated DHA supplements for infants in previous publications, noted that intake of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids is very low in infants who do not eat fish.

"This implies that low DHA intake in the early years of life is likely less than optimal and is perhaps causal of undesirable conditions that are potentially related to DHA status, such as attention deficit disorders, which affect 5% to 10% of children in the early school years," Clandinin and Larsen wrote. They cited no other studies to support that assertion.

The study was funded by Martek Biosciences, which markets an algal DHA supplement similar to that used in the study, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Study authors reported no financial conflicts of interest other than the research funding. The editorialists reported no financial conflicts.

Accessibility Statement

At MedPage Today, we are committed to ensuring that individuals with disabilities can access all of the content offered by MedPage Today through our website and other properties. If you are having trouble accessing www.medpagetoday.com, MedPageToday's mobile apps, please email legal@ziffdavis.com for assistance. Please put "ADA Inquiry" in the subject line of your email.